Archives

Why is the point of view you choose to write in so critical to the effects you wish to create in your narrative? The writer’s job, as I’ve said before, is to create characters and a world in such [...]

We don’t need to follow your characters into the bathroom to brush their teeth, unless something significant happens there. Likewise, we don’t need to know every step they take to the kitchen or [...]

I’m going to get to my subject today in a roundabout way, if you don’t mind. Sometimes the route you take to your destination is as interesting as the destination. My step-daughter’s about to [...]

Have you ever wished for a gentle guide who prods you to write each day? Someone who coaches you on best practice? Who is on your side? That’s what we’re offering with our creative writing [...]

Memoir writers often start out with less trepidation than their fiction-scribbling peers. They already know the story, right? They’re familiar with the characters, and they can picture the scenes [...]

I continue to think of parallels between life and the imaginary worlds of all our fictions. There have to be these equivalences, because otherwise fiction wouldn’t resonate with us; we wouldn’t [...]

Writing is a solitary process, which means it can leave you feeling lost and not a little lonely. In last month’s newsletter, we set out to help you to help yourself by giving you our best advice [...]

I read a manuscript recently in which the protagonist gazed out at the sun-filled park. Okay, fair enough, perhaps it gives us some sense of his world … but not much, let’s be honest. There was [...]

Congratulations to everyone who entered our February/March writing challenge . It wasn’t an easy one, because it relied so heavily on subtext – and all of you engaged with it in a creditable way. [...]

All About Writing’s latest writing challenge offers the winner a place on our creative writing ​Coaching Programme: Focus on scenes.  It’s a fourteen step programme with your own personal [...]

The skills and insights of creative writing have more applications in the “real” world than we sometimes realise. Politics, for instance, consists largely of opposing narratives. Different [...]

  Enjoy a bit of literary fun with All About Writing and Slow Life when we present our  Creative Saturday writing workshop at Casa Labia in Muizenberg on 14 April. Be inspired by the cry of [...]